Exceptional "Devil Horned" Cyphaspis Trilobite Cluster

This is an exceptional cluster of five complete Cyphaspis walteri trilobites. They are all above average size for the species, four are preserved dorsally and one ventrally. All of the spines and horns have been free-stood on the trilobites. Very good prep work and one of the nicest Cypaphaspis multiple plates that I have seen.

This species was finally formally described in 2014. A link to the paper can be found below.

“Devil horned” Cyphaspis (Trilobita, Otarioninae): examples from the Middle
Devonian of the Ardennes (Belgium), Eifel (Germany) and Ma’der (Morocco)

Trilobites were a very diverse group of extinct marine arthropods. They first appeared in the fossil record in the Early Cambrian (521 million years ago) and went extinct during the Permian mass extinction (250 million years ago). They were one of the most successful of the early animals on our planet: over 25,000 species have been described, filling nearly every evolutionary niche. Due in large part to their hard exoskeletons (shells), they left an excellent fossil record.

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